The hero’s fight with a dragon or giant adversary in medieval narrative [thesis]

292 Pages·1971·13.1 MB·English

by  Nancy BreMiller Black

72-1275
| BLACK, Nancy BreMiller, 1941-
i THE HERO'S FIGHT WITH A DRAGON OR
GIANT ADVERSARY IN MEDIEVAL NARRATIVE.
Columbia University, Ph.D., 1971
Language and Literature, general
[ University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan
(^Copyright by
NANCY BREMILLER BLACK
1971
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THE HERO'S FIGHT WITH A DRAGON OR
GIANT ADVERSARY IN MEDIEVAL NARRATIVE
Nancy BreMiller Black
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
in the Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University
1971
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PLEASE NOTE:
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UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS
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ABSTRACT
THE HERO*S FIGHT WITH A DRAGON OR
GIANT ADVERSARY IN MEDIEVAL NARRATIVE
Nancy BreMiller Black
Although J.R.R. Tolkien as early as 1936 succeeded in rescuing
the Beewulf monsters from disrepute, little scholarly attention has
been paid since then to dragon and giant adversaries in ether medieval
narratives. Yet from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, the episode
of the here's fight against a dragon or giant adversary remained a
popular motif in medieval narratives, and it was particularly adapt­
able to the romance genre.
This study is an extention of Tolkien's analysis of the monsters
in Beowulf. The function of the monsters in Beowulf is reexamined in
Chapter II, partly to set before the reader a poem of exceptional
quality which succeeded in producing symbolically potent monstrous
adversaries, and partly to explore further Tolkien's suggestions
concoming the specific connotations which the monsters carry. Ultimately,
this reading of Beowulf suggests some modifications an Tolkien's overall
interpretation of the Northern mythological context of the mensters,
specifically on the balance between pagan and Christian cencepts in
the last half of the poem.
To reoxamine Beowulf for the symbelic meaning ef the mensters, however,
is not to carry to the furthest extent the implications ef Telkien's
essay. For if the Beowulf mensters can be shown to be suitable
adversaries for an eighth-century epic here, if Tolkien can turn
Beowulf critics from scorn to admiration of monsters, the same can be
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2
dene for later works. The second part ef this study, therefore, examines
these mensters, primarily dragons and giants, which occur in twelfth
to fifteenth-century European narratives, that is, the main body ef
narrative material in which giants and dragons occur after Beowulf.
The purpose in studying these later monsters is twofold: first,
to define the new breed ef giant and dragon which emerges in the twelfth
century; second, to define the various strategies the medieval author
might rely upon to add depth of meaning to monstrous adversaries. In
their adaptation to a new world view and to new narrative forms, dragons
and giants underwent a considerable change in formi they became, in
varying degrees, more worldly, less fearsome than early epic mensters.
This change in the concept of dragons and giants and the resulting
aesthetic problems it presented are explored in Chapter III.
The remainder of the study is a reading of major poems illustrative
of three strategies the medieval poet devised to give added depth of
meaning to the episode of the hero's fight against a dragon or giant
adversary. The author could adopt a "matter-of-fact attitude" toward
the monstrous adversary and create meaning through structural positioning
(illustratod in Chapter IV by Chretien do Troyes' Erec et Enide and
Yvain). The author could minimize the monstrous qualities to the point
of humanizing the giant and, surprisingly, of the dragon as well; to
accomplish this the author most often combined his depiction of the
monsters with the enchantment or shapeshifting motif, so that the
monster is a man turned monster and therefore capable of being character­
ized extensively (illustrated in Chapter V by the Siegfried stories and
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). Finally, the author could treat dragons
and giants comically (illustrated in the final chapter by Gottfried von
Strassburg's Tristan and the chanson do geste Aliscans).
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Contents
Page
List of Tables 11
List of Illustrations . ii
Abbreviations iii
Chapter I: The Monster; and the Critics 1
Chapter II: Monstrosity and Apocalypse: A Study
of Symbolic Meaning in Beowulf 16
Chapter III: The Hero's Fight Against the Dragon
or Giant as a Medieval Narrative 60
Convention
Chapter IV: The Giant in Worldly Attire: A
Study of Structural Unity in
Chretien de Troyes' Erec et Enide
and Yvaln 119
Chapter V: Monsters Transformed: Enchantment
and Shapeshifting in the Depiction
of a Monstrous Adversary 166
Chapter VI: The Dragon and Giant Slain: Comic
Treatments of the Hero's Fight
Against a Monstrous Adversary 206
Conclusion 238
Appendix • 243
Selected Bibliography 270
i
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 A Structural Analysis of Sir Eglamour
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1 Tristan Fights the Dragon 85
Fig. 2 Perceval Slays a Dragon 86
Fig. 3 The Red and White Dragons 87
Fig. 4 The Red and White Dragons 88
Fig. 5 Arthur and the Giant of Mt. St. Michel 122
Fig. 6 Arthur and the Giant of Mt. St. Michel 123
Fig. 7 A Giant Cannibal of the East 124
Fig. 8 A Giant of the East 125
Fig. 9 Yvain's Battle with Harp in 126
Fig. 10 Yvain's Battle with Harpin 127
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ABBREVIATIONS
EETS, E.S. or. O.S. Early English Text Society,
Extra Series or Original Series
FFC Folklore Fellows Communications
Patrologiae cursus completus.
2k
Series latina.
PMLA Publications of the Modern
Language Association of
America
SATF Societe des Anciens Textes
Frangais
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CHAPTER I
The Monsters and the Critics
Caeterum in claustris coram legentibus
fratribus quid facit ilia ridicula monstruosi-
tas, mira quaedam deformis formositas, ac
formosa deformitas? Quid ibi immundae simiae?
quid feri leones? quid monstruosi centauri?
quid semihondr.ss? quid maculosae tigrides?
quid milites pugnantes? quid venatores
tubicinantes?
St. Bernard, Migne, PL,
CLXXXII, col. 915-916.
Dragons and giants are no longer the conventional
adversaries of present-day heroes. They play little part
in the major narrative forms v?e practice today. Dragons
and giants are novz relegated to the peripheral confines
of fairy tales, commercials, or collegiate fads. Our con­
cept .of the villain has changed. At the apex of our pop­
ular culture— in movies and in television— the villains
are ape-men, Frankensteins, and Martians. The Middle Ages
thought better of dragons and giants. If the English metri­
cal romances of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
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2
represent the popular culture of that day, then dragons
and giants proliferated there. More than one-third of
these romances have at least one episode pitting the hero
against a giant or a dragon. In one such romance, Torrent
of Portyngale, the hero successfully combats in the course
of his early adventures (within a mere 1770 lines) five
giants and three dragons. Nor is interest in dragons and
giants confined to a late period or to popular culture
in the Middle Ages. Earlier and more important writers—
the Beowulf poet, Chretien de Troyes, and the Gawain poet
--made use of the dragon and giant fights as well.
Scholars have in the past been divided in their
opinion of dragons and giants. There is on the one hand
the enthusiasm of folklorists and myth critics who view
the hero’s fight with a dragon or giant as a recurrent
theme or archetype common to all peoples in all periods of
history; on the other hand there are the medieval literary
scholars who have generally confronted dragons and giants
with Bernardian disdain. Some scholars of medieval litera­
ture on approaching this study would be tempted to ask,
like St. Bernard with regard to "savage lions," "monstrous
centaurs," "half-men," and "spotted tigers," what profit in
dragons and giants? At the root of the skepticism and scorn
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